Emmerdale Wiki:Manual of style
The Manual of Style is designed to be a rough guide to how to write articles for the Emmerdale Wiki. If you're new to Wikia editing in general, you might want to look at this page first for a beginner's guide. It is felt that the Emmerdale Wiki will be most efficient if it is consistent and uniform. Wikipedia has its own Manual of Style here, but there are some important differences between formatting styles here and there. Note that this is not a complete list, and suggestions are welcome. Article names When creating a new page, the following conventions should be observed. People's names *If both known, characters' first names and surnames should be included in the title (no middle names). Exceptions are if the character is credited on-screen using a shortened form of their first name or a nickname. Likewise, articles on actors or production crew, or any individual, are listed under the name for which they receive on-screen credit. *For characters who changed their surnames through marriage, their most recent known surname takes precedence. Redirect pages can be created for previous surnames. *Both first name and surname should be capitalised. *If characters are only given one name, such as a first name, the article title should be given a qualifier to differentiate it from articles on people with the same name. Possible examples include Roger (Episode 7497) and Walter (Woolpack customer). If the character's name is not known at all and they are credited by their occupation or something else, a similar convention should be observed, for example Police Officer (actor name) or Woman (Episode 1436/1437). If a character is not named and appears for more than two episodes, using the actor name should become a necessity rather than listing multiple episodes. *Titles (eg. Mr, Mrs, Dr) are only a first name or surname, if neither are known. Episode titles *Apart from breifly in 2008, Emmerdale episodes do not have titles, so they are listed according to episode number and date they were first broadcast in the United Kingdom. For example Episode 8 (7th November 1972). Both episode number and date are needed as often two episodes of the show are broadcast on the same day. *Spin-off productions usually have individual titles so articles should be named accordingly. Other *Article names should be in singular form (unless there is none). *For article titles with more than one word, only the first word and proper nouns should be capitalised. Perspective There are two ways to write a content page: in-universe and out-of-universe. The difference between these depends on the subject of the article; if it exists in the fictional world depicted in Emmerdale then it should be in-universe, otherwise it is out-of-universe. Although Emmerdale is set in the fictional village of the same name, it is grounded in the real world and so many real places and people have been referred to in the show over the years. These articles should be written in-universe with a subsection containing any relevant real life information. In-universe When writing an in-universe article the subject material should be treated as real (even though it obviously isn't). For example, the Amy Wyatt article begins Amy Wyatt is a teenage girl who is living with her foster parents Val and Eric Pollard., not Amy Wyatt is a fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale, played by Chelsea Halfpenny. Although these articles will contain some behind-the-scenes information, this should be under a heading such as 'behind the scenes' or another if there are a lot of supplementary out-of-universe details, and such a section should be written out-of-universe. Pages written in-universe include those on the characters, places and businesses seen in the show and the plot sections of episode articles. Out-of-universe This is when an article is written from a real-world perspective, and acknowledges that the show is fictional. When writing an article from this perspective, editors should use the Real World template to mark the page as out-of-universe. Pages written this way include those on production staff and overall articles on Emmerdale and the making of it. Page layout Some categories of article differ, but most follow this basic layout: #Content #Behind the scenes #See also #External links #Categories All articles should belong to at least one category and all articles should have content. The other sections are not necessary, but if they are included, they should be in that order. Distinct content and behind the scenes sections should only be included in articles written in-universe, otherwise they are the same thing. The content section should not use a Content heading. Longer articles should have several headings and subheadings in the content section to make for better reading, but smaller articles should not have any heading for the content. For more information on how specific types of pages should be laid out, see the following: *Template:Main character *Template:Individual *Template:Episode Images Images can be either publicity pictures or screenshots with the sole exception of episode pages where they must only be screenshots. For these, the original aspect ratio of the transmitted episode is preferred but alternatives are acceptable. Grammar and spelling It is felt that although Wikipedia conforms to American English, Emmerdale Wiki editors should be written in English English, mainly because Emmerdale is made and first broadcast in the United Kingdom where that variety of English is the most common, and is used by the characters in the show (usually). Sometimes speakers of other varieties of English may edit pages other than in English English, and for uniformity it is preferred if these pages are edited to conform to the standard of this wikia. Dates *Calendar dates are written e.g. 16th October. This is the most common way of dating in the UK. Tense As a rule of thumb, in-universe articles should be written in past tense, because from an outside perspective, all events depicted in Emmerdale episodes are history once the episode is broadcast in the UK. However, there are exceptions. The series, and Emmerdale Wiki, are rooted in the present day, so anything that is still true as of the most recent episode should be in present tense. For example, The Woolpack is owned by Chas and Charity Dingle. Out-of-universe articles should also follow this rule. Examples of sections written in present tense are events described in calendar date pages and episode plot synopses. Other *Links to other episodes within pages should not be in italics or inside inverted commas, as the article titles here are not proper episode titles. *Note Emmerdale and Emmerdale, the first of which links to the article on the series itself and is in italics, and the second of which links to the article on the fictional village and is not in italics. *Be aware that articles which exist on Wikipedia will not necessarily be created on this Wikia, even if they are mentioned in an article here. An article should only be created on Emmerdale Wiki if the topic is relevant to Emmerdale. If it is deemed useful to give a reader access to more information on something, it is preferable to link directly to the article on Wikipedia. Headings Headings and sub-headings should be used within longer articles to make for easier reading. Main headings should be bracketed by double equal signs. Subheadings should be bracketed by triple equal signs. *Similar to the naming conventions of article pages, headings should only have the first word and proper nouns capitalised. *Avoid links in headings. *Beware of too many headings for too little information. It is messy and makes the article look like a stub. Category:Organisation